Transcendence China, UK, USA 2014 – 119min.

Movie Rating

Transcendence

Patrick Heidmann
Movie Rating: Patrick Heidmann

The brain of a dead scientist is linked to a supercomputer. Starring Johnny Depp and Paul Bettany.

Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and their colleague Max Waters (Paul Bettany) are leading experts in artificial intelligence. They are also targets for skeptics, Luddites and anti-technology extremists who shoot Caster with a radioactive bullet. His body can’t be saved, but Evelyn and Max believe it’s possible to link him to his own AI system to make sure his mind survives. The issue is not how they will do it, but whether they should let Caster live on virtually. But they have no idea what the consequences of their experiment will be.

Given that Wally Pfister worked with Christopher Nolan as the director of photography on several projects, his directorial debut was eagerly awaited. Which makes this movie all the more disappointing. The intriguing issue of artificial intelligence is wasted on an illogical screenplay and flat characters, which the ensemble cast seems mainly to have surrendered to. Pfister quickly loses control of the story, and even the cinematography, which should be his specialty, is unimpressive.

18.02.2024

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